After eight years as an equine vet, Kelleyerin Clabaugh of Aramat Farm decided to put her life on hold to pursue her dream of mucking stalls and learning to ride from an upper level three-day event rider. She is now a working student for eventer Meika Decher of Polestar Farm in Lake Stevens, Wash. EN will be following along as Kelleyerin navigates the ins and outs of being a working student, and has the time of her life along the way. Go Kelleyerin!
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This picture pretty much sums up our first day.
Of course, once I decided to quit my job and embark on this working student adventure, my horse went lame.
Connie Tuor of Windfall Training Stables was nice enough to loan me her young up-and-coming Thoroughbred gelding “Danny” so that I would have a project up here at Polestar. I had only ridden Danny a handful of times prior to bringing him up here, and on those few occasions we had had moments of brilliance interspersed with chaos. Needless to say, I needed to figure him out. At home Danny was a busy boy putting everything in his mouth and rubbernecking every which way.
At Polestar, Danny’s busy mind was blown.
Apparently traveling with a complete stranger and her irritable mare in a tacky, faded blue 1988 straight load trailer in the pouring rain was unexpected, unappreciated and humiliating for Danny. Both horses seemed content until we hit the resonance frequency of a bumper pull trailer on the washboarded road between Tacoma and Seattle. Two ponies, two bales of hay, two Dobermans and all the memorabilia of my previous life bounced and shook so badly I pulled over thinking I had a flat. Nope, just a really crummy road. After 30 miles of this, Danny had decided he was opposed to this new adventure and was hell bent on holding it against me the next time I climbed on his back. And boy did he! We spent the entire first lesson on two legs. I stayed on out of sheer lack of health insurance.
But by day three, Meika no longer looked incredulous when I insisted Danny had potential in addition to attitude. Today we got to jump in the outdoor arena (since the sky finally stopped pouring, sleeting, snowing and otherwise being a pain in my #$%). And yes … Danny CAN jump! He is so much fun, but I have to be two steps ahead of him the entire time and stick to my guns every step of the way. I also have to stop being afraid of pissing him off. Meika volunteered to get on and piss him off for me, but I am going to try to handle this punk myself for a few more rides.
I know Danny is a good boy. He is that kid in a crowded classroom with the above average IQ who is bored and acts up to get attention, good or bad. I won’t be that teacher who misunderstands and stifles genius. But that doesn’t mean that Danny won’t get sent to detention once and awhile.
